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Tuesday, September 27, 2011
I did write my thoughts and reports on the proceedings, at least the stuff I could publically talk about. There's some stuff of a strategic nature that I can't and won't reveal that falls into 'the Black LGBT Revolution will not be televised' realm.
To make it easier for y'all to read the posts with my thoughts about the various days Moni was in the middle of the 2011 conference I'm going to put the links in this post.
Second Annual NBJC Out on The Hill Approaching
Guess Who's At OUT on The Hill?
OUT on The Hill-The LGBT Congressional Staff Association Briefing.
OUT On The Hill-Busy Day
OUT On The Hill-Busy Day, Especially For Me
OUT On The Hill-Hangin' With The CBC
OUT On The Hill-Day of Reflection
OUT On The Hill-NBJC Friday In Full Effect
OUT On The Hill-Saturday Sessions
OUT On The Hill-Sunday Events
OUT On The Hill-Moni's Reflections
Sunday, September 25, 2011
OUT on the Hill has come to a close for this year and the staff of the National Black Justice Coalition has once again managed to put together a first class, informative and empowering event.
One of the themes that NBJC ED/CEO Sharon Lettman-Hicks has stressed during the time we've been up here is 'Owning Our Power'. There have been a lot of frank, thought provoking family conversations inside and outside the breakout sessions and events where we have had discussions into just how do we as African descended TBLG people 'Own Our Power' and fearlessly name and claim it.
You TransGriot readers know I've never been shy on this blog about speaking my mind and calling people organizations and feces laden crap out, but when I return to Houston, I'm planning on owning my power.
I'm coming back home with a purse full of business cards and contacts that in between the time until we have the 2012 Out on the Hill event, I will be diligently working to expand on. I have the reassurance and knowledge that I have far more love, respect and support inside and outside the African American BTLG community and our allies than I believed I had and a stronger support system to help me 'Own My Power'.
It was an honor for me to finally meet people I've talked to either on the phone, e-mailed or chats for years like Kylar Broadus, Kamora Herrington, and Valerie Spencer. It was wonderful finally getting to meet Sharon Lettman-Hicks, the BOD and staff of the National Black Justice Coalition. It was also an honor to meet leaders like Kimberly McLeod, Stacey Long and a host of others I'd need another post to name and know they feel the same way about moi.
I said this in a post I fittingly wrote on King Day 2011, and it bears repeating. If you claim to love all Black people, then by extension that means Black transpeople are included in that definition as well.
I love Black people, and to me, while fighting for the human rights of transpeople is a primary focus, I'm Black first and everything else comes second to that. Loving Black people means that I love ALL Black people in all their permutations including my lesbian, gay, bi, trans and straight brothers and sisters. That also includes my brothers and sisters across the African Diaspora as well. That is the first prerequisite to leading us and yes Sharon, I got that Owning My Power message loud and clear this week. I'm happy to see that my bi, gay, and straight brothers and sisters love and value their trans ones.
It was amazing to talk to civic leaders in DC and beyond, faith leaders, people like Cheryl Kilodavis and Sirdeaner Walker, and transleaders in Washington DC such as 'Number Four' Earline Budd, Danielle King and Ruby Corado. I enjoyed my time talking to Washington DC GLB leaders and my gracious hosts Jeri Hughes and Denise Leclair about a wide variety of issues that were on their minds.
I head back to H-town knowing our movement is in great hands thanks to the talented, emerging, energetic young leaders I met here that are coming out of the best educated and brightest generation of Black youth we've ever had in our people's history.
The bottom line is that the Black trans community in Houston and elsewhere nationally has been silent for far too long, and I can,.will be and must be that leader they can look up to and count on for leadership in that area. If I'm the only one standing up for Black trans people when I get back to the Lone Star State, so be it. But the invisibility and silence of the Black trans community in Houston ends when I step off that plane tomorrow afternoon.
I know this Out on the Hill conference isn't going to solve what ails Black LGBT America in one exhilarating week. The problems we have took years to get to this point and we have a lot of hard solid thinking we need to do and organizing work that needs to be done to lift up our community.
As for the trans sector, we are in even more dire need of hard solid thinking, organizing, and getting over the shame and guilt issues that plague us as we struggle to utilize our many talents to become a more cohesive part of the greater Black BTLG and African American family.
The 2nd Annual National Black Justice Coalition OUT on the Hill event concludes today with a daylong invitation only meeting of the NBJC Leadership Advisory Council that is kicking off as I type this and runs until 5:00 PM EDT.
And yes people, there are talented transmen and transwomen on the NBJC Advisory Council that will more than hold their own in that meeting and aren't 'scurred' to speak up for our community's interests as they formulate policy and NBJC's strategies going forward.
The concluding event will be a 7:00 PM EDT screening of the movie Pariah. It premiered at the 2011 Sundance Film festival and is a critically acclaimed coming out story starring Adepero Oduye, Pernell Walker and Kim Wayans. It is directed by Dee Rees and executive produced by Spike Lee..
The movie will be in limited release on December 25 and is a feature length expansion of Rees' 2007 short film of the same name. The screening will be taking place at the Regal Gallery Place on 7th St NW and is sponsored by NBJC and the DC Mayor's Office of GLBT Affairs.
I'm going to take the opportunity to get my trip to the MLK Jr Memorial in today since the weather's nice and I'm leaving for the Lone Star State tomorrow. But I'm definitely going to check this film out.
Saturday, September 24, 2011
OUT on the Hill continues to its conclusion as we gathered to discuss the Black LGBT Revolution that would not be televised.
The first part of the morning was devoted to plotting and planning the next steps in that Black LGBT Agenda that NBJC ED and CEO Sharon Lettman Hicks along with the National Black Justice Coalition BOD has been ably leading. Ms Lettman-Hicks will approach her second anniversary as the head of the NBJC on October 1, and as I heard from many people before I arrived here in DC and have witnessed firsthand, she is definitely a positive force to be reckoned with.
After a few moments of Lettman-Hicks laying out a strategic vision that needs to stay covert for the time being, we sprang into the Youth Emerging Leaders conversation in which a panel discussion co-moderated by Kamora Herrington and Maurice Jamal tapped four young TBLG leaders to come up with a FUBU organizing strategy.that would capture the imagination, creativity and energy of our 18-35 GLBT youth.
Some of the ideas they came up with will be discussed in the NBJC Advisory Board meeting tomorrow and the four people on that panel will continue to have those conversations
When that concluded we broke for lunch and prepared to listen to a keynote luncheon speech from the Black AIDS Institute's Phill Wilson entitled ''30 years of AIDS Is Enough'.
Wilson not only pointed out the sobering statistics and reality of the fact that AIDS has become a Black disease, he challenged us in the NBJC to step up to the plate and do something about it.
One of the things he also mention at the conclusion of his speech is what he called the Four Gets:
1. Get InformedAfter Wilson's inspiring speech, and some panel and audience questions and commentary, the retiring Dr. Sylvia Rhue was presented with an award from NBJC for her six years of service to the organization to a standing ovation
2 Get Tested
3. Get Treated
4. Get Involved!
We then moved on to two breakout sessions in which one of them was conducted by Cory Allen Johnson and Roy Potts of the IGLHRC concerning LGBT rights across the African Diaspora. That's a discussion I would have loved to have been in the room for.
The other breakout session was focused on TPOC, the Transgender Persons of Color Initiative facilitated by Kylar in which we discussed the issues that are germane to transpeople of color, its progress and the TPOC plans for addressing those issues. And yeah, some of that is part of the Black trans revolution I warned y'all about that won't be televised.
While we were in those sessions, the NBJC board and ED/CEO Lettman-Hicks were in a session of their own in listening mode.
5 PM came much too fast to end this day. Some of my fellow NBJCers are headed to the Convention Center for the CBCF-ALC dinner tonight.
As for the TransGriot....well, somebody had to write about what was going on during this OUT on the Hill session day.
Well, at least the parts I can tell y'all about.
While I'm siting in another exciting program at this moment, thought I'd tell y'all about yesterday's DC events. .
As y'all have been discovering during the updates, I've been having a blast at the second annual NBJC OUT on the Hill event in our nation's capitol that is dovetailing with the 41st annual CBCF-ALC.
Friday dawned cool and cloudy as I headed out the door to the Convention Center and the NBJC sponsored panel discussion that was set to kick off at 9:00 AM entitled 'From Civil Rights To LGBT Equality'
The panel was co moderated by ESPN's LZ Granderson and Detroit City Council president Charles Pugh with the participants being Phill Wilson, Dr. Cathy Cohen, Valerie Spencer, filmmaker Maurice Jamal, 'My Princess Boy' author Cheryl Kilodavis, and GLSEN board member Sirdeaner Walker.
The start of the panel discussion was delayed a few minutes in order to allow the students from Norfolk State University to arrive at the venue and hear the discussion in its entirety.
Once our students arrived and NBJC CEO and ED Lettman-Hicks gave the opening remarks, the moderated discussion began in earnest. It touched on a wide variety of subjects such as the bullying that prompted Ms.Walker's son Carl on April 6, 2009 to take his own life, Kilodavis speaking about her son Dyson and her journey towards being the best mother she can be for her child with her proud parents in the audience, Valerie keeping it real on the trans related portion of it, and Phill Wilson reminding us that HIV/AIDS is still around 30 years later and the disease has a disproportionately Black face to it..
Speaking of people in the audience, NBJC founders Mandy Carter, Dr Sylvia Rhue and Keith Boykin were in the room to witness this panel as well.
The discussion also talked about media images, The Safe Schools Improvement Act, and a spirited debate on the 'Black people are uniquely homophobic' myth. It also contained a humorous moment in which Valerie was taking about in relation to trans issues having the courage and pride to be your authentic self to which Charles Pugh wryly remarked,"Does that include the Indian hair you're wearing on your head?
Ouch. Val walked right into that one. Of course, Valerie is lying in wait for an opportunity to read him back when he least expects it.
But that moment quickly turned into a serious tear jerking emotion choked one when Ms Walker was the final person on the panel to make her closing statement. She responded with a moving standing ovation receiving tribute to her son Carl and a plea for us to do more to protect all our kids from the scourge of bullying.
NBJC also donated a check to the Carl Walker-Hoover Foundation before photos were taken of the panel, the board of directors, and the NBJC advisory board. There's also a possible future photo of me and Valerie.
At this point everyone breaks for lunch and I decided to kill time and and hang out with the people working the NBJC booth in the vendor area while waiting to see how Cheryl's 'My Princess Boy' book signing turned out. When I checked on her she was being interviewed by a local television station and the No More Down Low TV cameraman who has been documenting the happenings of the OUT on the Hill conference since it started.
It's several hours until the CBCF Foundation Chairman's Reception starts at 5 PM, but I was planning to go to the NBJC one at the hotel in Arlington, VA that started an hour later. Since I had the invite to it in my grab bag, decided not to let it go to waste and checked it out for an hour until it was time to hop the Yellow line to the Crystal City station, hang with the NBJC peeps and get my grub on.
The food selection included crab cakes, and sure did help myself to them. Crab cakes are as indigenous to the DC-Maryland area as barbecue is to my home state and it would have been a crime not to partake in them. Yep, they were good as advertised. So was the jazz ensemble band with a very familiar vocalist to us.
We had once again some great food, great times and I got challenged by ED Lettman-Hicks at the dinner table to make a personal blog project happen by January 1, 2012.
Time flies when you're having fun, and it's hard to believe that the time I'm spending with these wonderful people will soon be coming to an end.
Oh well, have today and Sunday to make the most of it.
